Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 13, 2026

by Jeffrey Spencer | Sep 15, 2026 | Sermons | 0 comments

CLICK HERE for a worship video for September 13

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 13, 2026

Matthew 18:21-35

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Human beings are habitual scorekeepers. I’m not talking about sports, though I do have an app on my phone which updates me with the scores for the Mariners, Kraken, Seahawks, Cougars, and Aggies. I’m talking about the scorecards we keep on one another. When someone sins against us, we like to keep score. We like to keep track of who owes us an apology, who owes us a favor, who owes us restitution of one kind or another.

Our gospel reading for this morning begins with Peter keeping score. “Lord,” Peter begins, “If another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”

Peter probably thought he was being generous here, and he was! Most rabbis at the time had a “three strikes, you’re out” policy. Peter upped the strike count to seven!

But Jesus took it even farther. “Not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy-seven times.”

These numbers are hard to translate and so some of your Bibles have Jesus saying seventy times seven, which, of course, would be 490 times. But however you translate it, the point is the same. Jesus is calling for an amount of forgiveness far beyond anything anybody expected.

To make this point further, Jesus tells a parable. He tells the story of a king with a slave who owed him ten thousand talents. This is an enormous sum! I saw one estimate suggest that at normal slave wages this would take 164,000 years to pay back. This is a ridiculous amount, obviously exaggerated to serve the purpose of the parable. It was humanly impossible to pay it back – which is exactly the point.

The king decided it was time to collect his ten thousand talents, and when the slave couldn’t pay, he ordered his slave to be sold, along with his wife, children, and all his possessions. The slave fell to his knees, begging the king for patience. The king then had pity on him and forgave him the entire amount. Just like that, he was free from his entire debt. It was all forgiven. He was free.

Scene two: This freed and forgiven slave leaves the palace and immediately bumps into a buddy of his who owed him a hundred denarii. This was not a small sum – about three or four months’ worth of wages – but this man who had just been set free from 164,000 years’ worth of wages, the equivalent of approximately 60 million denarii, seized him by the throat and demanded payment. And when his buddy couldn’t come up with the tiny-by-comparison 100 denarii, he had him thrown into prison.

Scene three: The king gets wind of this and is furious. He has his slave hauled back in. “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” The man’s entire debt is reinstated, and the slave is to be tortured until he repays back every last dime, presumably for 164,000 years.

Jesus concludes this parable with some alarming words: “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you,” Jesus says, “if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” This parable serves as a warning – to Peter, and to us, and to all who insist on keeping count, clinging to the scorecards we hold against others, looking for throats to grab.

Does this mean that our own forgiveness from God is connected in some way to our own willingness to forgive? Well, yes and no.

We don’t want to turn this into a transaction, a tit-for-tat. It kind of sounds like that here, but that isn’t how the God we know in Christ works. We have the rest of the Bible describing God’s mercy and forgiveness and salvation as a gift, not something we earn or achieve. Remember that the first scene in the parable is of a king who is willing to forgive an amount that is humanly impossible to repay. That is who our God is! We don’t earn our forgiveness by being forgiving.

But that said, God’s forgiveness and our forgiveness of others ARE closely related. When our hands are closed in unforgiveness, they are also closed to receiving forgiveness from God. When our hands are grabbing others by the throat whenever they might owe us something, they have let go of the mercy of God. Jesus is saying that if that’s what you really want, God will “hand you over” to that way of living – and it won’t go well for you. That kind of scorekeeping is its own torture. Holding on to those grudges is its own kind of hell. It is also a sign that your heart is not holding onto the extravagant mercy that God has shown towards you.

That’s what this forgiveness really is; it is a heart issue. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean not confronting others about their sin. Just last week we heard Jesus tell us to confront them! Forgiveness does not mean ignoring problems or minimizing when you are hurt. Forgiveness does not mean approving of sin. Forgiveness doesn’t mean not holding someone accountable for their actions. It doesn’t mean you have to trust someone who has proven to be untrustworthy. It doesn’t mean returning to an abuser. It doesn’t mean being a doormat.

Forgiving someone is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of releasing the anger and the bitterness that make you want to seize someone by the throat. It is an inner disposition that lets go of any need to get even or settle scores. It is the inner act of opening your hand to fellowship if that is at all possible and releasing all animosity even if it is not. When Jesus calls us to “forgive from the heart,” he is calling us to purge the poison of unforgiveness from our hearts, which only makes us sicker and sicker the longer we hold onto it.

This can be extremely difficult in some situations. I think that’s why Jesus taught us to pray about it. In the Lord’s Prayer, he teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Here he shows us that God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others are indeed closely related to one another. Vertical forgiveness and horizontal forgiveness are inextricably related to each other. But Jesus also shows us that he knows this will be a struggle for us, and so he teaches us to pray about it. He teaches us to bring those struggles to him for his help.

And Jesus not only helps us by giving us warnings. He also helps us by giving us perspective, which is also an important aspect of this parable. In this parable, with its exaggerated figures and high drama, Jesus is helping Peter, and us, to see ourselves not merely as the perpetually aggrieved who are owed something, but as people who have our own tremendous debts. Through this wild, hyperbolic parable, Jesus is helping us to see that our sin is much greater than we often think. The debt we owe God is a much greater amount than we realize, greater than we can count. You know those running tickers which show the national debt which is constantly going up, up, up – that’s us! That’s the debt we owe to God! That’s how badly we’re in hock! It is a debt we could never pay off on our own!

But the good news is that every last bit of this debt has been forgiven for Jesus’ sake. Our gracious and merciful Lord and King has forgiven what was humanly impossible for us to ever repay. All that debt is gone. All our sin has been erased from the books. We have been forgiven and set free!

This ultimately happened not through a parable, but through the cross. On the cross, Jesus bore our unforgiveness and all the torture that comes with it. Jesus was handed over for our sin, and he willingly took it all upon himself. Instead of lashing out or seizing anyone by the throat, Jesus offered his own perfect forgiveness, saying, “Father, forgive them.” Jesus willingly paid our debt in full, saying, “It is finished.” Jesus did what was humanly impossible for us to do for ourselves. Jesus purchased us with his own precious blood in order to set us free.

So what will you do now? Are you still counting? Are you still keeping score? Are you still looking for a throat to grab?

Every one of us has someone who owes us something. Someone who hurt us. Someone who disappointed us. Someone who said something they shouldn’t have said. Someone who betrayed us. Someone who never apologized. Someone who still owes us.

Jesus doesn’t tell us that what they did to us doesn’t matter. He tells us to remember what he has done for us.

Remembering what Christ done for us is what truly changes our hearts. This doesn’t necessarily come quickly, or all at once, but returning again and again to the throne of his grace is what makes it possible for us to forgive others from the heart as we ourselves have been forgiven, until we can finally throw away those scorecards once and for all.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 6, 2026

by Jeffrey Spencer | Sep 8, 2026 | Sermons | 0 comments

CLICK HERE for a worship video for September 6

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 6, 2026

Matthew 18:15-20

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you can probably imagine, people love to send me church bulletin bloopers –

you know, those funny examples of a misspelled or poorly chosen word which entirely changes the meaning of the bulletin announcement. Here are some examples:

“Don’t let worry kill you — let the church help.”

“Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.”

“The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.”

“The council retreat will be hell on May 10 and 11th.”

“The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.”

“The Temple Talk from our church treasurer is entitled, ‘I upped my giving. Up yours.’”

As funny as these are, I chose these particular bloopers from a very long compilation because each of them holds a kernel of truth about life in the church. The not-so-funny truth is that there really are times when we sin against each other. There are times when we get sick of each other. There are times when there is hostility between members of the church. There are times, intentionally or not, when we hurt each other.

And the hurt that happens in church can be particularly painful because we rightly believe that church should be a safe place. The hurt that happens in church is similar to the hurt that happens in family life. It hurts more because we have higher expectations in those contexts. It hurts more because these are the people we should be able to trust. It hurts more because we believe these are the places we should experience love and care, not hurt. Like our families, if church isn’t a safe place for us, it seems like nowhere is, and the world can then seem awfully cruel and hopeless.

I know church hurts hit differently because I hear about them all the time. They make a big impact on people. I’ve had people turn down invitations to serve on council because they have PTSD from the last time they were on it decades ago. I’ve heard of how people have bravely stepped forward to volunteer for something, putting themselves out there, making themselves vulnerable, trying something new, and then they are snapped at by someone for not doing it the way they think it should be done. That hurts! I’ve heard of people being hurt because they were overlooked or not included in something, intentionally or not.

The good news in our gospel reading for today is that Jesus knows all of this about his church. Jesus anticipates that church members will sin against each other. Jesus knows that when he calls a bunch of sinners together to live as brothers and sisters that there are going to be problems from time to time. I find great comfort and hope in the simple fact that Jesus already knows this about us! While church should be a safe place, while it should be a place of love and care and not hurt, and often is, Jesus knows that we will not carry out this calling perfectly. Jesus knows this and yet he calls us to live together as his people anyway.

And as he calls us together to be his church, he gives us a template for how to handle the inevitable hurts that happen when sinners are placed in close proximity to one another. “If a member of the church sins against you,” Jesus says, “go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.”

Jesus instructs us to go directly to the person who has sinned against us and deal with it one on one, in private. This isn’t what usually happens, though, is it? Instead, people often go to everyone BUT the person who hurt them to air their grievances. And so instead of the cancer of conflict being contained, localized, encapsulated, treated – it spreads. It metastasizes. For the health of the body, Jesus instructs us to deal with it directly, one on one, while it is still encapsulated. He encourages us to be intentional about seeking reconciliation, catching it early. Jesus instructs us to go to the source in an effort to restore the relationship.

Jesus knows this won’t always work, and so he has a backup plan for us. If reconciliation doesn’t happen, Jesus instructs us to THEN bring two or three others into the situation. This is not to gang up on anyone. Others are brought in to serve as witnesses, as mediators to help sort things out. Again, the goal is to “regain that one,” to restore the relationship.

If that doesn’t work, Jesus says, it should be brought before the entire church. This doesn’t mean standing up in the middle of a service and pointing fingers. It means bringing it to the church authorities for their help. We have an entire chapter in our constitution dealing with church discipline, and our bishop’s office has a standing committee on discipline to deal with things when they get out of control. But even here the goal is always reconciliation. The goal is always to “regain that one” whenever possible.

But what if that doesn’t work? What then? “If the offender refuses to listen even to the church,” Jesus says, “let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” What does this mean? It is highly debated among biblical interpreters. Some suggest it means putting the offender outside of the fellowship, keeping your distance from them – which is how Gentiles and tax collectors were commonly treated by pious Jews in Jesus’ time. They say it means establishing healthy boundaries, as we might say today.

This makes sense to me. There are times when this is necessary. For instance, pastors who engage in abuse or other conduct unbecoming the office of holy ministry need to be removed from their positions. Full stop. In some rare, extreme circumstances, unrepentant church members who are bringing grievous harm to the body need to be removed from congregations. Jesus, then, might be speaking to those situations where the hurt is too deep or the danger is ongoing and it just needs to be stopped.

Others, however, have pointed out that Jesus went to great lengths to bring Gentiles and tax collectors into his community. He continued to offer abundant forgiveness to Gentiles and tax collectors along with every other kind of sinner. In fact, Matthew, the very author of this gospel, was himself a tax collector at one point! Jesus has a proven track record of reconciling both Gentiles and tax collectors, so others argue that what he is saying here is, “If they won’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to the church, leave them to me.”

These two interpretations aren’t mutually exclusive, I don’t think. We can recognize that there are times when toxic people or situations require drawing lines and establishing boundaries, while at the same time we never give up on praying that repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation would happen, trusting that ultimately it is Christ’s job to make it happen, not ours.

These instructions are very helpful. They are so important. Jesus is teaching us to lean into the inevitable conflicts that arise in church. He is teaching us to see every dispute as an opportunity for pursuing reconciliation, an opportunity for building community, an opportunity even for spiritual growth as we put our trust in him.

But Jesus gives us something even better than instructions in our gospel reading for today. He also gives us a promise. “Where two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus says, “I am there among them.”

Jesus promises to be present amidst the bloopers. Of course we strive to be a warm and caring congregation. I think we’re better than most at this, and I think that because most of the time that’s what I hear from you. However, we come to church not primarily because of the others who are here and how they treat us. We come to church because it is here that Christ Jesus has promised to be. We do not come to church because the church is full of perfect people. It isn’t! We come to church because it is here that we encounter our perfect savior. Even in the midst of all the failings and sins of his people – which he himself anticipated! – Jesus is here, pouring out his gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is here in worship, it is here in his church, that Christ is present in Word and Sacrament to reconcile us to God.

“Where two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus promises, “I am there among them.”

Because Jesus is here, the church can be place of reconciliation. Because Jesus is here, our hurts can be healed. Because Jesus is here, we are here too. That is why we come – because each and every one of us need the reconciliation he gives to us.

Through him, your sin is forgiven. Through him, our sin is forgiven.

As his reconciling grace and mercy are poured into us today, may they begin to overflow out of us as well.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 23, 2026

by Jeffrey Spencer | Aug 23, 2026 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for August 23

Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 23, 2026

Matthew 16:13-20

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who is Jesus, really? Some say he was a teacher of great moral truths. Some say he was a social activist who spoke truth to power and challenged empire. Adherents of Islam say Jesus was one prophet among many, and nothing more. Many atheists say Jesus never existed at all but was merely the main character in an ancient fairy tale.

Who is Jesus, really? For those of us who look to scripture to answer that question, we get a crisp, clear answer today from the lips of Peter and the pen of Matthew.

Jesus asked his disciples what people were saying about him, who people thought he was. Some thought Jesus was John the Baptist. Some thought he was Elijah. Still others thought he might be Jeremiah or another of the prophets. “But who do you say that I am,” Jesus asked. Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

In other words, this great confession of faith did not come to Peter because he was wise or committed or spiritually accomplished. Peter did not conjure up this answer himself. It was given to him as a gift. God the Father revealed it to him, Jesus said. God put the correct answer on Peter’s lips, and Matthew, in recording what Peter said, put it to paper for all of us to see, so that we would know who Jesus really is too!

Jesus is the Messiah. “Messiah” or mashiac in Hebrew, simply means “anointed.” At its most basic level it literally means “someone who has been dabbed on the forehead with oil.” However, anointing was used to mark someone for a special office or calling. People were anointed to serve as prophets. People were anointed to serve as priests. People were anointed to serve as kings. Over time the word Messiah became a title associated with the one God promised to send to be the ultimate prophet, bringing the fullness of God’s word to people. It became associated with the one God promised to send to be the ultimate priest, the ultimate intermediary, giving people access to God. It became associated with the one God promised to send to be the ultimate king, the one who would usher in the kingdom of God. And so when Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter replied, “You are the Messiah,” he was saying a lot! God had revealed to him that Jesus was the fulfillment of all God’s promises to speak his word to us, to give us access to himself, to bring us into his kingdom. Jesus was the Messiah who would do all these things!

Peter also said that Jesus was “the Son of the living God.” Peter was saying a lot here too! As the Son of the living God Jesus is uniquely qualified to show us God. He is uniquely qualified to speak for God. He is the embodiment of a living God – an active, involved, personal God who is present in and through the life and ministry of his Son. And so God revealed to Peter that when we look at and listen to Jesus, we see and hear the true and living God.

Jesus called Peter blessed. He was blessed! He had been blessed by God the Father, who revealed to Peter the truth about his Son. And then Jesus said to him: “You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

There’s a little bit of wordplay going on here. Peter, petros in Greek, literally means “rock.” So, Jesus is having fun with Peter’s name. But Jesus is also making a huge promise here. Jesus promises to build his church on this rock. So what is this rock?

Well, I’ll tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t Peter the person. Peter the person could be a little rocky. Our gospel reading ends at verse 20, but if you keep reading just three verses beyond that, Jesus is calling Peter Satan and telling him to get behind him! A few chapters later, Peter will deny and abandon Jesus. It is true that after the resurrection Peter becomes a bold and powerful preacher. It is fair to call Peter the first pope, as our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters like to do. He was the first leader of the Christian church; there’s no doubt about it. But even after the resurrection we find Peter compromising the gospel and needing correction from Paul – a story we hear about in Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Jesus does build a church, and he does build it on a rock – but that rock is not the person of Peter. The rock is the word Peter proclaimed, the word which was revealed to him by God the Father. The rock is the good news that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the living God. The rock is the public proclamation of the truth of who Jesus really is. The foundation of the church is the word that the Father himself has given us to share with the world. The moment the church or any of its preachers stray from that word and try to do their own thing, Jesus says to them, “Get behind me, Satan!”

The church as an institution has often been a source of great disappointment for many people. We live in a time of widespread distrust of institutions, including the church – often for good reason. We sometimes find ourselves deeply embarrassed by the dumb things said or the wicked things done by people wearing a cross or a collar.

This can be deeply troubling at times. It bothers me too. But it is nothing new. St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that “we have this treasure in clay jars,” or “we have this treasure in earthen vessels,” or, in my favorite translation, “we have this treasure in cracked pots.” This verse refers to how the very human church as an institution is deeply flawed and frequently disappointing. And yet, it contains a treasure. It has the word of God. It has the truth about Jesus. It has the good news that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  The church is holy, but it is only holy insofar as it bears this truth, this treasure. The office of the holy ministry is established by God, but this office is inseparable from the word. Those called to this office are only authorized to proclaim what God the Father has revealed in his word. The rock upon which Jesus builds his church is the word revealed by the Father and confessed by Peter, and ultimately nothing will ever budge or break this rock – even the gates of Hades will not prevail against it!

This rock is the foundation and the guide for our lives as Christians, and we desperately need it. In a confusing world with many different claims to what is true, we need this rock. In a world with so many different voices pulling us in different directions, we need this rock.

When my wife and I were in Hawaii this summer we hiked the Kilauea Iki trail, a four-mile loop which begins and ends in tropical forest but takes you through the middle of a volcanic caldera. The caldera part was such a contrast to the tropical forest. It was fascinating, but I certainly wouldn’t call it pretty. It was stark and barren. There were parts that looked like a moonscape. There were parts that looked like a freeway after an earthquake. There were parts that were just a huge open expanse of empty space. There was no regular trail in the caldera, like there was in the tropical forest, and so in several places we were confused about which way to go. But then we started noticing these carefully stacked piles of rocks which were placed strategically along the way. These rock piles are sometimes called cairns, and hikers use them to help mark the way. Those rocks were our guide. Those rocks showed us the way. Those rocks kept us on the correct path. Those rocks kept us from wandering away and getting lost.

As we make our way through life, we need guidance – especially through the stark and barren and confusing parts. We need those markers along the way. God’s word is that guide. The word revealed to us by the Father is the cairn that keeps us going the right direction, leading us into the truth. Sunday after Sunday, we come to another pile of rocks which show us the way. Every time we turn to God’s word, we are nudged back onto the right path. God’s word not only guides our behavior, though it should. It not only teaches us God’s will for us, though it does that too. God’s word guides us into the truth about Jesus, who is the way, and the truth, and the life.

Who is Jesus, really? He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

When Peter made this good confession Jesus said to him: “Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

Blessed are you, too. Because today God the Father has revealed to you the truth about his Son.

Keep close to this rock, and you will never be lost.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church